>> that's pretty much -- >> we loved having him. i hope he comes back. if it's way too early, are what time is it? "the daily rundown" guest host from "the fix. ". >> the fix is in. as the death toll riseness gaza, hopes for a ceasefire are also on the rise as president obama and secretary of state hillary clinton to try to stabilize the situation. back at home, the conservative knocks on governor chris christie keep coming after his pre-election embrace of president obama in the wake of that devastating storm. and two weeks after election day, congressman allen west fights to keep his job comes to an end. but is this the last we'll see of the fiery floridian? good morning from washington. it's tuesday, november 20, 2012, and this is "the daily rundown." developing now secretary of state hillary clinton is already on her way to the mideast

deepening involvement. clinton will travel first to jerusalem to meet with benjamin netanyahu and then to ramallah to meet with palestinian leaders and finally to cairo, egypt. the president was up late last night talking to netanyahu and mohamed morrissey. this morning chuck asked ben rhodes whether clinton is going because talks are stuck or a diplomatic resolution is close at hand. >> she is going because we've been in discussions with these leaders and we want to carry those forward. and obviously the center of gravity for those discussions is in the region. i don't want to predict what the outcome of those discussions will be. we know how difficult the situation is, how charged the issue of gaza is. we've seen conflict there in the past. so this is a difficult challenge. but, again, it's worth the effort of leaders from the united states in the region and

interfashionly. >> chuck joins us now from cambodia where he is traveling with the president. chuck, a lot of moving and fast moving parts here. what can you tell us? what's the latest? >> i can tell you what aides will say in answer it to that question off answer. certain things you can say on camera. i got a more blunt answer which is somewhere in between. they don't feel like talks are stuck but they aren't moving fast enough. there's concern in the obama administration that not enough is being done. there's concern hamas doesn't feel that it's ready to stop the rocket fire into israel which as far as the united states is concerned and ben rhodes made this clear, that's the number one priority before nip other part of this negotiation is done. when you think of the time line, the president up late after all of the summit.

he's here for a couple of summits. gaza has overshadowed all of that. he was up late. he was up with morsi and netanyahu. morsi is the conduit into hamas. the united states doesn't have any direct conversations with hamas. the conduit is morsi. gets off the phone with netanyahu. decides to call morsi back. after that, the president and the secretary huddle. time for shuttle diplomacy. so the decision to send her there and it comes with some risk. the united states putting that much skin in the game getting that involved if suddenly nothing is prevented and in 72 hours a ground invasion begins, a little diplomatic egg on the face of the united states and secretary clinton. there's potential reward down the road. this could be a big feather in her cap at the end of her career. but toss that aside right now, the big concern is what do you do to prevent what could be a ground invasion and what was interesting at this briefing, chris, i want to play another

bite here from ben rhodes. he was asked specifically has the united states asked the israelis to hold off on a ground invasion? and here is ben rhodes' answer evasion, if you will. >> we believe that israelis, like the united states, like other countries, would prefer to see their interests met diplomatically and peacefully. as the president said the other dais real operation of that nature would bring with it great cost to palestinians in gaza and also to israelis. >> bottom line, secretary clinton's mission, chris, is to buy time, number one. try to create some space so that maybe a temporary ceasefire can be negotiated while the longer term can be happening here. i think the key to watch here, the schedule, you laid it out. first it's jerusalem and then netanyahu and abbas and the palestinian authority who have no role here whatsoever but it is the only palestinians we

have -- the united states has -- diplomatic relations with. so she is going to do that out of basically out of obligation, if you will. but the key meeting is clinton and morsi. and all of the talk at this briefing and everything you hear out of the administration right now morsi is playing an incredibly important role. they are saying everybody in the obama administration publicly and even behind the scenes very positive things about morsi. he's the key here. he's the one that seems to have the ability to potentially get hamas to back down. can he pull it off, do the direct one-on-one talks between clinton and morsi. does that provide the impetus to make that happen? i think that's the unknown here and it will be quite the 72 hours of old-fashioned shuttle diplomacy. i haven't seen this in a couple of decades. back to the jim baker days, of him at the state department, chris. >> now, chuck, it's a remarkable

thing, probably a more newsy trip certainly maybe than hillary clinton thought for her last trip but this is her last trip as secretary of state. you've been with them. what is the mood like? it's a remarkable thing that these sort of one -- well, not sort of, these one-time foes are now sort of the ying and yang of our american foreign policy? what's the mood like there between president obama and secretary clinton as she takes her last lap as secretary of sta state? >> it was interesting that white house aides were sure to brief us that the two of them -- and we should preface this. it's her last trip with the president. object 0 vviously she is doing one now before thanksgiving, her last trip on a big summit, an international trip with the president. on the ride from myanmar and, remember, secretary clinton has been basically the point person,

she was the first secretary of state to visit myanmar and then that sort of led to this visit by the president. that was a big deal. she laid that groundwork. and the president at aung san suu kyi's house, this is the house where she was under house arrest, a very poignant moment. and the president used half his remarks to play tribute to hillary clinton there. anyway, on the ride from myanmar to cambodia, aides were sure to tell us they were in the private office just together and we were told reminiscing. there is a little bit of a bond here. barack obama and bill clinton may not have that bond but barack obama and hillary clinton do. there may be -- i've never bought into the idea that hillary could be the heir apparent, if you will, to barack obama. i might buy into it more today than i have in a while. >> you know, chuck, it's a remarkable thing.

i know you and i talked about this but they have a lot in common. if anybody knows what they went through in 2008, it's the two of them. what i would not have given to be a fly on the wall in that huddle on the plane. chuck todd from cambodia, thank you. >> all right. back at home some republ republicans are seizing on the crisis a. day after suggesting president obama should send former president bill clinton to try to broker a mideast ceasefire, senator john mccain, yes, the 2008 republican nominee, criticized the president's response to the conflict last night and questioned whether sending the secretary of state to the region would produce results. >> if this, god forbid, conflict escalates and, again, it is a sign of american weakness throughout the region. before in crises henry kissinger was there or jim baker was there brokering the process and bringing a halt to it. now the president makes phone calls from burma?

>> nbc's deputy political he edr and my friend is here with this morning's first read. dom, so mccain criticizing sending hillary clinton who is the secretary of state, top diplomat. whatever. leave it there. we have 97 house republicans on a different but related matter writing a letter to president obama opposing the idea of nominating the current u.n. ambassador to the united nations, susan rice, to secretary of state. it feels like on the domestic front we have a fiscal cliff and we're going to work things out, but there's still a lot of kind of opposition and you can hear in mccain's voice a dislike for where the president is heading. what does the republican party do now? cut deals? where do they go? we know where they went after 2008. they unified against obama. it worked for them in 2010. why did it not work in 2012? >> i think both sides will have

to consolidate their bases. find out how much leeway each side has. and then they can come to the table and say, all right, can we raise rates or raise are revenue a little bit. can we cut -- how much can we cut entitlements? how much will the two sides be able to give and i think though you see in john boehner and in president obama two people who are willing to work together if they can get the wings, the fringe wings of either side to kind of get onboard and come together. >> you know, one thing i would note just as it relates -- first of all, susan rice hasn't been nominated for secretary of state. that said, if she is, the house has absolutely no role. it would be like me and you either supporting or opposing. >> 100 house republicans can oppose her but they don't have a vote. john mccain lost to president obama. he's more of an armed services guy than he is a foreign policy diplomacy guy.

he called for bill clinton to go in but then was critical of hillary clinton going in. you know, i think a lot of people will say his politics are more personal than pragmatic. >> yet she is the top diplomat in the country. >> right. >> i want to talk because i can't resist 2016. i can't help myself. it's an addiction. >> why? >> you sound like my wife. chris christie hugely focused in the run up to the election after hurricane sandy, saying nice things about president obama. in "the new york times" today, the governor of iowa is quoted as saying the following. i will put it up and read here. there are some people that think maybe he could have handled it, been a little less gushing. but that's his personality. he has got that new jersey edge to him. you know, for good or bad. i don't think most people describe chris christie as gushing but that's fine, one way or the other. >> he emotes. >> are you surprised at the level of blow back for folks who haven't read "the new york

times" story, they should. whether christie gave obama a hand up in the election. are you surprised by it? >> first, let's just say it's not true that president obama won because of hurricane sandy. >> correct. >> the fact is according to some of the numbers, he may have lost as many as 800,000 votes because turnout was down in the most affected areas. there's two sides to this. there's politics and there's personal. you know, i just don't think chris christie was thinking about the politics or caring about the politics, when his state and places that he cares about, and places that he's been and grew up and lived in, you know, were being devastated. for me this is personal. i lived in all of the affected areas growing up in queens, living at the jersey shore. just knowing family that's been in red cross shelters and seeing power out. people don't care about the fact that chris christie wanted to support president obama. they need the federal aid. he was happy to get that support

and that's what people are focused on. >> it was a great point. you're out there seeing this devastation. seeing people's lives obje obliterated. the idea chris christie is thinking, hmm, how could this benefit me? i'm all for politicians being machiavellian. deadly fighting between israel and gaza could be over any minute now. we're live in gaza next. plus, a powerhouse panel of experts here to talk about the crisis, america's increasing involvement, and how israel's iron dome anti-missile system is changing the face of the fight. and are we getting a new deal for christmas? exciting. as the cliff comes closer lawmakers head home for the holidays, what's going on behind the scenes on capitol hill? first, a look ahead at the president's schedule. he's heading home from cambodia as we speak. a long flight. he'll watch about 15 movies. [ male announcer ] what are happy kids made of?

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reports from israel a truce could be announce d as early as this evening. ayman mohyeldin joins us. >> reporter: comments made by morsi could be the biggest indicator yet that a truce may have been reached. the president was attending the funeral of his younger sister in a province in egypt and he was speaking as well in front of thousands of mourners but the comments were made in front of traveling journalists with the presidential pool. he did say he expects at these

difficult times egypt was going through that one of the issues that would be resolved was the ongoing, quote, aggression on gaza. he said that would come to an end today indicating it would be at some point today that a ceasefire could be reached. since those comments were made, other egyptian officials commenting that within the hour we can expect an announcement to be made between the palestinian factions and israel. all of this comes against the black drop of diplomatic ak it ti activity that will see secretary of state hillary clinton arriving in israel this evening where officials suggest that an announcement may be made. chris? >> thanks, ayman. let's bring in our experts to talk more about this. the managing director of the washington institute and former senior director for middle east affairs at the national security council, jeffrey goldberg and robin wright is a senior fellow and distinguished scholar at the wilson center, and she just returned from the region.

i would add robin is a former kol he colleague of mine at the "washington post." i'm thrilled the three of you are here. three people who can tell us the meat of what's going on. robin, you were just there. both chuck and ayman indicated signs are moving in a direction of a ceasefire, but both were also cautious to say, look, you know, nothing is declared until everything is declared in that regard. does that jive with what you know coming out of there? >> i think everybody wants to see an end to the hostilities. the real problem is does this open the way for significant diplomacy? no ceasefire will last unless both sides deal with the realities. the palestinians have lived under conditions they think are unacceptable. hamas has been using its rockets to pressure israel. israel, you know, wants to make sure that hamas no longer targets civilian areas, and so both sides have an interest in ending the hostilities but there are differing levels in terms of does israel want to deal with

hamas government. is it going to be suspicious about a government in egypt making negotiations that's led by the muslim brotherhood? so there are a loft questions about what happens next even if there is a ceasefire. >> and, jeff, as a layman on this, i feel like i read the stories and i think, i feel like this is where we are about every five or six years. number one, am i wrong? and, number two, if i am wrong, which could be possible, what is different this time? >> no, you're right. there's a -- >> i feel better about myself. >> end right there. >> thank you for coming in. >> yeah, yeah, you are right. no, no, no, we have this cycle going on and the tempo seems to be increasing. what's interesting about this, as missiles and rockets proliferate you will see this more and more.

what's interesting, a couple of things that are interesting, one that, "a," israel has proven that it has this missile defense capability. >> this iron dome. >> the iron dome system. the other thing that's so interesting hamas has rockets now that can reach jerusalem. that's a huge development. but on the other hand both parties have kind of limited interim goals in this conflict which is why a ceasefire is possible because i don't think either party wants to take this to where it seemed to have been going. hamas, as robin said, wants to pressure israel on these sanctions that it has on gaza. it wants to become the primary power base in palestinian society. israel is not trying to reorder gaza and overthrow hamas. it just wants to eliminate much of its rocket force. so, you know, what we're doing is we're setting up for the next conflict. >> when you have limited goals, a ceasefire is possible. to the broader point, mike, let's say there is a ceasefire.

on the optimistic side. does it tell us anything to jeff and robin's point, does it tell us anything about the long-term f future for peace in the region, or is this, as jeff pointed out, is this, okay, it's a ceasefire today but given the recent history of this, we're looking at a series of these things with ever increasing frequency because the core issues here have not changed? >> the united states always sees crises as opportunities in this region. and what really has changed since the last conflict in 2008-2009, is the arab spring. a changeover in governments and, frankly, also people have suspected for the last few years that the u.s. is disengaging from the region. president obama and secretary clinton are in asia which is this pivot to asia. and soap i think that what the united states wants to see here, they want to see can we take morsi, a muslim brotherhood leader, and make him into a constructive leader and can we use this?

>> speaking from your expertise, given his background, is that a plausible skcenario for morsi? >> we could put aside his background because his background says, no. he came up through the ranks of the muslim brotherhood. no one expected him to be president but now he is president and the question is, is he going to act as president of egypt with national interests in mind or the ideology? he's so far been leaning in the idea of pragmatism. >> even with the statement today, robin, go ahead. >> the most important meeting hillary clinton will have will be in cairo and what's been so fascinating as this crisis has evolved, the communication between president obama and president morsi almost on a daily basis, in some cases twice. the fact is morsi is -- >> that is new. >> went from being an engineering professor in ten weeks to becoming one, if not the most important leader in the arab world and this will had

test not only his ability to be president of egypt but his ability to be the leader of the arab world and the next one in determining what happens on the peace process. and, frankly, when i went to see the muslim brotherhood after they were elected, they were all talking about we actually may be able to make the deal that hosni mubarak never was able to do because we, first of all, were elected democratically, reflect the will of the people, and we have hamas in our camp. so it will be very interesting to see what happens out of cairo, if you get a ceasefire, if then there is substantive diplomacy for the first time in a generation. >> i wonder about this, jeff, how much does -- robin talked about the relationship, the budding relationship between morsi and president obama. there's such a focus in diplomacy, diplomatic talk, the relationships here. how much can a relationship either make up for or deal with the underlying issues in a region or morsi's own politics

at home or netanyahu's own politics at home? a relationship with president obama while i don't doubt it, it's probably helpful at the margins or can it make a real difference even if the politics in each country may not argue for it? >> well, one obvious point is that the relationship is buttressed by aid. let's not forget that the economy is in shambles. it has a military that wants to get its weaponry. the u.s. is still the address for that. no, i think this is a fascinating moment because we're finally at the moment when we're going to see whether the muslim brotherhood actually wants to rule in what we would consider a responsible way. he's not calling for a jihad. he's not calling for a march on jerusalem. whether that's because president obama is coaching him and coaxing him in that direction did -- >> or that's what he wants? >> well, whether it's that is what the job demands.

>> fascinating. i hate to bring it to domestic politics but it's the campaigning versus governing question. >> right. it's different. it's different when you're in charge. it looks a lot different when you're in charge. >> and they all face elections within the next year. this was just the trial run. >> israel next month. >> israel as well. >> very quickly, mike, because i want to get to this because i was struck by it when we talked about it earlier. a bit about benghazi and susan rice. 97 house republicans sent this letter to president obama. i want to just read a little bit from it. ambassador rice is widely viewed as having willfully or incompetently misled the american public. her actions give u.s. allies and rivals abroad reason to question u.s. commitment and credibility when needed. the president last week in his press conference seemed very gung ho on susan rice. what do you make of the politics of this? as i pointed out to dom and he pointed out, too, 97 house

republicans or 250 doesn't matter because this is not a matter for house republicans if he does nominate her. what do you make of the susan rice fight? is it a fight worth having if you're the president of the united states? >> well, look, when i look at the benghazi issue, i see serious issues about security, did we get our understanding of what was going on in libya right? i'm not sure this issue should be a major issue and i think you mentioned campaigning versus governing before, chris. and i think the administration now needs to move out of campaigning and into governing mode and if they just offer some transparency and accountability here, that maybe we can get past this. lay out what happened. i don't think there's any reason to come out in drips and drabs. >> overly partisan or fair in terms of the back and forth over benghazi? >> to me it strikes me as overly partisan. i mean, susan rice is being blamed for going on "meet the press" and a couple other shows and repeating some talking

points. it seems as if certain people have decided she is an easy target, an easy way to get at president obama probably makes president obama more likely. >> it certainly sounded like it. >> to nominate her. put her in a box. and she is not -- i mean, what she said was obviously not correct but, you know, that's what happens in politics and that's what happens in these quick moving events. >> i would add the one thing to remember is president obama will not ever have to seek re-election again. so doesn't have to worry about that. we have to go but i am thrilled to have had you guys. mike, jeff, robin, thank you all for your wisdom. >> thank you, chris. wall street kicked off this short trading week on a high note. yes, a high note. the market rundown is next. plus, democrats pick up another seat in the house. our daily rundown of undecided races is getting a twhoel lot shorter. first, today's trivia question. what was the fourth closest state, the fourth closest state by percentage in the 2008

presidential election? now we'll help you, though i'm against this hint, we will help you by telling you missouri, north carolina, and indiana were the three closest states. what was the next closest state? ♪ i'd like to thank eating right, whole grain, multigrain cheerios! mom, are those my jeans? [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios ok! it's a new way to get cash back deals

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on our radar this morning, two more house races come to a conclusion and a little sweet talk for hostess. there's finally a winner in the race for florida's 18th congressional district. allen west, the republican, conceded to democrat patrick r murphy early today. after a two-week battle west decided to opt against the long and costly court battle. he went on to congratulate murphy saying he praised that murphy will serve his

constituents with honor and integrity. and another close house race will come to a close later today for utah's fourth congressional district race between mia love and jim mathison will be released today. love conceded the race on election night but is holding out hope uncounted mail and provisional ballots could turn the results. mathison is leadi ining given t president obama lost the state by 48%. finally, pour some sugar on me. twinkies may not be gone for good. hostess has agreed to mediation after a bankruptcy judge demanded that the two groups negotiate. it's unclear how the talks will go but both sides expressed hope and it's possible thousands of jobs could be saved. the mediation is set to take place this afternoon. the market shook its post election slump with the biggest one-day gain since the election

two weeks ago partly due to optimism that a fiscal cliff deal can and maybe will get done. the opening bell is just ringing. so let's get the market rundown, cnbc's becky quick is here with it. good morning, becky. >> reporter: hey, good morning, chris. you're right. we did see a very strong day for the markets yesterday. the dow was up by over 200 points. we will continue with some of that optimism today until we got the news from hewlett-packard. this is shattering news. hewlett-packard is a huge company, a dow component, and it came out this morning and said that it had been looking into autonomy, a company it bought last year, and it now says it's going to be taking an $8.8 billion write-down, $5 billion to what it is calling serious accounting improprieties. anyone looking at this says fraud. that when they were sold, the company was significantly overvalued because of accounting fraud that took place all the way through the company. they are digging into that now. they have alerted the securities exchange commission. that stock looked like it would be trading down by 10% today.

that is a massive loss, huge concerns and this is a story you're going to be hearing a lot more about. we also have fed chairman ben bernanke speaking later today at 12:15. he'll be making a speech and that's something the street will be watching closely as well. this morning it looks like we're opening with the dow down by 53 points. chris, i knew i liked you, but you sealed the deal with that def leopard comment. >> i know '80s and '90s power rock ballads better than anyone. we can talk white lion and poison whenever you want. >> reporter: got it. thanks, chris. >> thank you, becky.

the house is taking a break this week for thanksgiving. can party leaders get a deal without appeasing their entire caucus and forge a compromise through a coalition of democrats and, dare we say it, republicans? joining me now is jonathan allen and amy parns for the hill newspaper. hello both of you. >> hi, chris. how are you? >> i am well, thank you for asking. let's talk about fiscal cliff. i feel like so much of the focus has been on can republicans, can john boehner, deliver his coalition. i was struck by a story in politico that said, you know, democrats have their own issues here if the deal is simply to raise taxes on the wealthiest

1%, 250,000 or above 0. john, can you talk about that? this is not just republicans having a deal with a fraction coalition. it may be democrats, too. >> that's right. democrats have taken different positions on where they would draw the line, if they would loo draw the line at all. a bunch of moderate democratic senators who may not want to draw that at $250 think. >> john, i'm sorry. we're having an audio problem that i think they're going to fix. i'm going to amy. amy, i have the same question for you. let's see if the mike will work. >> okay. well, i think that the democrats do have a problem. senator reid needs 60 votes to extend the middle tax -- the middle income tax rates. the democrats are disputing on entitlements. i think they have a problem there. it's not, well, president obama has the leverage. there is some dispute about what democrats do really want. >> amie, i am looking at this third way which is kind of a moderate democratic group. they did a poll among voters who

supported president obama about entitlement reform. they said what is your preferred approach to reducing the deficit, mostly taxes with some spending cuts, 41%. mostly spending cuts with some tax, 41%. taxes only 5%. spending cuts only 010%. that would suggest that there's room to deal. is that an accurate readout, and how hard does the white house and president obama specifically push as it relates to sort of saying to his coalition, look, we may have to bend a little? we're not going to break but we need to bend a little bit. >> there is room to deal. like i said, while president obama has the room to leverage, he doesn't want to increase middle tax cuts but he wants to negotiate. i mean, he does want bill signing. i think he might be willing to compromise, to look at what senator reid and others want and i think there is room for compromise there.

>> now, let's move from the discussion of the day to the discussion of the future. the two of you have signed up you. i want to make sure i get the title right. it's a tentative title. tentatively titled hrc state secrets and the rebirth of hillary clinton. john, i have tremendous faith in you and your microphone, so let's go back to you. tell me why you guys wanted to write the book and what is the rebirth of hillary clinton? >> well, certainly i think the core focus is a fascinating political story of an interesting political figure who is doubting the political ashes, who has risen. she has been working to regain her own brand and also the brand of the united states. >> hey, john -- >> too much faith, huh? >> just for the record, it's not me. it's the microphone. so, amie, because i know john

would much rather have you talk about the book than neither of you talk about the book, i want to talk about hillary and her rebir rebirth. now i could hear john, but i bet a lot of other folks couldn't. tell me sort of the rebirth question. you know, i can't avoid and i don't think anybody can avoid the talk of hillary clinton in 2016. had hillary clinton can't. when you signed on for the book, how much was will she or won't she run on your minds? >> well, it is. we're looking at this like what might be the apex of her political career. she has done a lot in the last four years and we think this could serve as a story about what her last four years has been like. she has been very successful at the state department up until we'll say benghazi. but she is still dealing with that and it remains to be seen what are will happen with her there. but i think it was important to tell the story, you know, her poll numbers were really down when she left the primary in 2008 and here is a woman who has really, really high approval ratings. she is really well loved 0 in

the party and outside of the party. and so it will be interesting to see what she does in 2016 regardless of where she is now. >> now the good thing for amie and john, we have about four years this will the next election in which time we will have you guys back on to talk about the book. thank you both. >> thanks, chris. now get your game faces on, as i said, i overestimated. it's not four years. it's three years, 11 months, and 19 days until election day. who is counting other than me? plus, who is the worst candidate of 2012? there are a few option 0s to choose from. our political panel will be here to talk about it next. but first the white house soup of the day. ribollita. thank you. i am told it is italian bread soup. the google machine told me that. and speaking of the google machine, don't forget to check out our website rundown.msnbc.com if for nothing else that awesome picture of chuck. wasn't my daughter's black bean soup spectacular? [ man thinking ] oh, this gas. those antacids aren't working.

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in this week of thanksgiving there is much for which we can be grateful. as we look back to where we stood only four weeks ago the unity of this hemisphere, the support of our allies, of the calm determination of the american people. daily flashback to this date in 1962 when president kennedy announced he was lifting the naval blockade of cuba a month after the cuban missile crisis began the kennedy agreed to lift after khrushchev vowed within 30 days. republicans looking for a silver lining can set their sights in 2016. they have to look somewhere. when the spotlight will shine on a group of up-and-coming stars from the gop. let's bring in our panel. michelle bernard from the bernard center for women in public policy and molly ball. okay. so i wrote something recently that said there's a couple -- this is not a great time of

year. republicans clearly. there's reason for optimism. republican superstars are coming of age. they weren't really ready in 2012 and 2016 will be ready. one of them marco rub yes, just happened -- he was in the area. happened to go to iowa over the weekend. here is what he had to say from that event. >> let's just address the elephant in the room. anytime anyone makes a trip to iowa people start speculating about what you're going to do in the future. let me be blunt. i am not now, nor will i ever be candidate for offensive coordinator for iowa. >> okay. so obviously we know what he's doing there, molly. this has started pretty quickly. bobby jindal throwing mitt romney under the bus over the gifts comments. you have rubio going to iowa. but this is kind of a group that

republicans were waiting for, right? this is kind of these people are presum presumably the young talent. >> 15, 16 months ago this time, all we were talking about was all of the republicans who refused to get into the race for 2012. a lot of them because the time wasn't right. obama, they thought, looked very strong and that ended up bearing out. or because they weren't ready. they had just been elected, people like chris christie, people like paul ryan. >> one cycle too soon. >> people like mike pence and mitch daniels, like jeb bush. the republicans have a very deep bench. bobby jindal, a bumper crop of governors and senators as well. >> michelle, molly mentioned chris christie. i will say i was -- i am surprised at the level of criticism he is getting within the republican world. >> absolutely. >> do you buy that this hurts

chris christie in any meaningful way going forward? as a potential candidate? >> absolutely not. despite what is happening and the rhetoric going on with republicans who are angry with chris christie, people in new jersey love chris christie. >> his numbers are great. his polling for the handling of hurricane sandy. >> absolutely. and there is something refreshing about the fact he seems to be above politics. he calls it like he sees it. quite frankly, today's republican party has imploded and there is room for a chris christie. there is room for bobby jindal and all the other people we're talking about because they are not your regular every day republican party. they are part of the big tent. >> and we've seen if republicans keep nominating the kind of people they have demographically speaking it's very hard for them. >> they can't win. and one of the things chris christie defensemmonstrates he perfectly willing to put politics outside the door, reach across the aisle and get the job done. and that's what the american public wants. americans didn't vote for dysfunction. they voted for government that

works. and chris christie is doing a really good job. >> you spent a lot of your life over the last months with mitt romney. i'm always amazed -- i would not look nearly as good as you -- >> makeup artist. >> i would not look near ly as good as you having spent that much time on the road. i am interested in the mitt romney world tension with the chris christie world. some sensed he wasn't, chris christie was not talked too much about chris christie, not about mitt romney. did you pick up on that? >> yeah, and that was funny was that as chris christie was touring storm damage with barack obama, mitt romney was rolling out this new line in his stump speech about bipartisanship and working together. and as he was saying that, chris christie was doing it. and they felt like that undermined them even as chris christie was sort of living the message that mitt romney was putting forth. i also have to say marco rubio on the stump with mitt romney, of all the circuits that joined him, marco rubio was among the

most charismatic, got the best response. >> better than paul ryan? >> paul ryan is different because he was the vp. >> probably an unfair comparison. to add to your point, a lot of rising stars in the republican national convention and i thought rubio was so clearly sort of the class of that class. >> went after clint eastwood. >> fair point. context is everything. we'll be right back with the three of you. first, trivia time. we asked what was the fourth closest state by percentage in the 2008 presidential election. now this stunned me. the answer is montana. as we told 0 you, missouri, north carolina, and indiana were the three closest states, all decided by less than a point. mccain won montana by just over 2.2 percentage points making the race there even closer than in florida. you can stump your political junkie family members at the thanksgiving table. they will not know that. of course they'll have been watching "the daily rundown" so

they may know it.

the third agency of government, i would do away with education, the commerce and, let's see -- i can't. the third one i can't. oops. >> it's still so painful these many months later. let's bring back our panel. okay. we played the rick perry oops moment. not to rub it in but because i am on the fix blog yesterday gave out our worst candidate of 2012 and it was rick perry. the guy started in the summer of 2011 as the alternative to mitt romney and he ended -- it didn't end at that moment but it kind of did. you spent a lot of time on the

trail. do any of you disagree with my pick, feel free to voice it. >> i remember seeing him at his first new hampshire event in a coffee shop and thinking, i'm looking at the next president of the united states. >> when he came into the race it was billed that way. >> in a field of so many weak candidates, mitt romney still had such a hard time knocking down the nomination. >> that hurt him because he had to spend so much of that money. >> i'm not going to say that you're right or wrong. this i will say. he was a terrible candidate but i give him credit for not being wrong on immigration. >> he knew. >> he knew it. he got it right. the rest of the candidates were so awful in their treatment of women, in african-americans and hispanics. for that reason alone i say all of them. >> honorable mention to todd akin and richard mourdock. >> the biggest response.

>> they faded away. >> 50 years ago medgar evers was assassinated, his wife had a lifelong dream of singing at carnegie hall. next month her dream comes true. >> good one. he's raising the bar. >> a shout out to all of my fellow howard university graduates, founders library needs you. we need money. howard university, the mecca. >> my colleague has an amazing piece on our website the atlantic.com last week the obama tech team. some crazy pictures if you like ear plugs and mustaches. but also just a great story about how sophisticated. >> it is a wonderful story taken on a plane you were nig cross-country because it's long but really good. georgetown university hoyas knocked off number 11 ucla and take on indiana this evening at 10:00 p.m. hoya. that's it for this edition of

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